


How I Died...And It Didn't Stick

by JennyGyver



Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Dragons, Henchman - Freeform, Non-Graphic Violence, Non-Sexual Bondage, Original Character(s), Restraints, Soldiers, Sorceresses, Spells & Enchantments, Swords & Sorcery, Weird dreams, Witches, but only for a little while..., it doesn't really stick, just a little bit, with dinner plate hands...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 14:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15245682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennyGyver/pseuds/JennyGyver
Summary: And that's the story of how I went from reluctant warrior of a (mostly) noble people to trapped science experiment for a witch.-----Dragons and souls and sorceresses, oh my! Just a weird dream I had a while back and wrote down - I might use the info in this to make a longer and more detailed story from, but for now, just enjoy!





	How I Died...And It Didn't Stick

I am a warrior, trained in bow and sword, and I have a unique ability that when I die, my soul travels back in time to the last point I wasn’t in danger or heading into a dangerous situation and I “wake up” with all of the memories of my death, so I can figure out how to avoid it. Others around me know of this ability, and when a powerful sorceress occupies the land, I am the natural, though slightly unwilling, choice to drive her out. With the help of the locals, people I have grown up around for my entire life, I prepare for the journey to her castle. When we get close, the other warriors with me tell me I must go on alone, and they will provide backup. I reluctantly enter the castle courtyard, keeping to edges and searching for this sorceress. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize she also had a giant henchmen with hands the size of dinner plates. I noticed those hands when they grabbed my arms from behind and held me still as the she-witch appeared from a corridor in front of me. From her voluminous robes, she withdrew a large, faintly glowing red, sword, and said something to effect of how small and weak I was, and that she was surprised they only sent one warrior in after her. She expected better. Then she ran me through the gut with the sword, her leering grin the last thing I saw.

I woke up with a gasp in my bed back at the village, right before someone ran in my hut to tell me the sorceress was at the castle, and she had to be taken care of. I gaped at them, holding my stomach where the phantom pain of the sword lingered. They probably realized from my expression that I had some knowledge of this, and ran out to tell the elders. I could hear the turmoil going on outside the door, then the head elder and a couple of elder warriors entered to grill me on my most recent “experience.” After a couple of hours of analyzing the situation and grilling me on the facts, speaking over my prone body as I tried to recover from the most recent trauma to my soul, they decided on a plan of action. This meant I had to go back and try again. Even if I died, because I was expendable. Or at least could live, by not living through it. Or some such weirdness.

Once again, the preparations began and I was reluctantly in the middle of it. I prepared my bow and sword once I could stand properly. I really didn’t like dying, even for the common good. The rest went pretty much exactly as it had the last time, with the folks seeing us off as we traveled up to the castle. The guys stayed outside waiting for some sort of imaginary signal, and I went in alone. 

I kept my eyes peeled for the henchman as well as the sorceress this time. We got there later in the day than the last time, so I knew they wouldn’t be in the same spots as before. I made it most of the way around the courtyard this time, close to the other drawbridge, before I heard a thunderous roar above me. I nocked an arrow and sighted above me in one quick motion, pausing only half a second when I realized the roar came from a dragon overhead. I loosed the arrow, and it merely bounced off its side scales. I fired off a couple more, with the same effect, before the dragon and flown past the courtyard wall. 

I could hear the whooshing of the wind under its wings as the dragon banked and turned around for another pass over me. Once I saw it, I began firing arrows furiously, in several spots, trying to find a weakness. What I didn’t realize is that somehow the dragon could turn its body or scales to reflect my glass tipped arrows to shoot straight back at me. It shot my half dozen or so straight my way, and I dodged the best I could. Three of them still found their marks in my legs. I went down hard on my back. 

I noticed the henchman then, standing on the other side of the drawbridge. He also had a bow, and was nocking an arrow to fire my way. I frantically started scooting backwards, out of the way of his fire. I dragged my body out of the way fast enough, so my legs basically took the brunt of his fire. I looked down at them to discover they looked like a couple of pincushions, with half a dozen arrows in each. They strangely only had part of the head buried in my muscle, with the entire shaft sticking out and shaking with each of my movements. I fired at the dragon and around the corner at the henchman until I ran out of arrows. Of course, the arrows did nothing.

The dragon made one final pass overhead, and I started gingerly pulling the arrows out of my legs, firing them off one at a time from my awkward position on the ground. I could feel the ground bucking a bit from the giant beast landing on the other side of the drawbridge. I heard a strange crunching, then softer footsteps coming over the drawbridge towards me. I grabbed another arrow from my leg, wincing as I pulled it out, and held it nocked and ready. 

As soon as a figure came into sight, I fired off the arrow towards their chest. The she-witch clapped both hands, pinning my arrow between them inches from piercing her skin. She gave a sly grin and moved toward me with the shaft in one hand. I started scooting backwards the best I could, but my legs would no longer move properly. With each shaky jerk, they seared pain from each wound.

The sorceress stepped forward. “Did you like my dragon trick?” she asked sarcastically. Her brow puckered. “I know you.” She didn’t seem to like that realization. Moving quickly to stand over me, she arrogantly placed the arrow at my throat. Looking like she wanted to ask another question, and then thinking better of it, she plunged the arrow into my throat and watched me bleed out with great satisfaction. Unfortunately, once again her leering grin was the last thing I saw as my vision faded to black.

I woke once more with a gasp in my bed. My legs were very sore, and they did not want to cooperate. Pain emanated from all of the places I had been wounded. I checked, and there were no wounds. Great. The she-witch had managed to kill me twice in a row. 

The same man from before ran into my hut to warn me about the sorceress, and the whole process started all over again. After my recovery period and the grilling from the elders, most of the village turned out to help us prepare and see us off. One little girl came up to me and said, “I hope you get her this time.”

I leaned down to her level, trying to ignore the protest in my legs. “Well, she’s already gotten me twice. But I’ll try.”

Fast forward to the point where we’re all at the castle. I finally convince a couple of the bravest men to come in with me, and the three of us make our way into the courtyard. Have one to the men what to look out for and what to expect but I am not prepared for what happens next. The Sorceress and her henchman are nowhere to be found.

I turn around and look at my companions to discuss this latest development. But, when I see them, they look paralyzed and unmoving. The more I look around the more I realize other things are not moving that should. Before I can understand this, the sorceress and her henchman jump out from behind a pillar. I don't have enough time to draw my sword before they are on me, paralyzing me like my companions with one flick of her wrist. She quickly wraps a couple of loops of stretchy cording around my wrists, which immediately shrink to bind them tightly. 

She releases me from her holding spell and I try to get away, but once again her henchman prevents me. She approaches me, and says she has questions for me. With a snap of her fingers, I see my companions unfreeze before the courtyard fades into a dingy kitchen. I am roughly pushed down in a swiveling chair and she begins to ask me she I came from, how I came by this magic, and how I was blocking her memories of me. That was news to me, so of course I kept my mouth shut and opted for glaring ferociously instead. She was not amused. She and her minion slapped me around a bit, and I ended up with at least a split lip and a bruised cheek. She suddenly snapped her fingers and we were standing in the middle of a busy street that I didn't recognize. Dinner Plate Hands had a firm grip on one of my arms as he lead me after her through a crowd. I kept trying to get my hands free, and though the cord would stretch a bit, it would immediately shrink back down to be just as binding as before. The people here seemed to equally love her and fear her. They mostly just looked at me with pity. This went on for a few days. She really wanted me to bow to her, which I rigidly refused. Someone would kick me, I'd fall over, and she would allow me to get up after a brief round of laughter. I realized I needed to worry more about the binding than her henchman because if I got too far away from her, they would almost come alive and drag me forward until I was right behind her. 

At one point, I was across the room from her, and almost free of the accursed cording when it snapped painfully tight and pulled me until I was in my knees in front her. She held my chin in her fingers and said, “you won't be free of me until I can figure you out.” 

And that's the story of how I went from reluctant warrior of a (mostly) noble people to trapped science experiment for a witch.


End file.
